Into the Light
by TeaEnthusiast
Summary: Into the Light focuses on Annabeth and Percy after escaping from Tartarus.
1. Chapter 1

Into the Light

Intro (Annabeth POV)

Before I begin to tell you our story, let me first ask you to do something. Imagine a world of darkness. Not only physical darkness, but of emotional darkness, spiritual darkness. A darkness you can feel in your soul. A darkness that you long to expel so viciously you can't help but become a little dark yourself. Now multiply that feeling by a thousand. All the fear, the sadness, the depression, the gloom. The crushing feeling you experience in your chest every time you feel guilty because of something you did. The dizzy feeling in your head you get when someone else hurts you. The passionate feeling of revenge. The utter depression from a heartbreak. Now channel all those separate feelings into one word: Tartarus. Or, as you smart kids may know, the epitome of hell. I'm not going to write about that. At least, not today. I'm not quite ready for that. But I will talk about after. After the darkness, the gloom, the utter depression and hopelessness. When we escaped the darkness. When we came, into the light.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One.

The day Annabeth and Percy escaped Tartarus was a day the gods would never forget. After the 14th day missing, every one assumed they had gone to rest in Elysium. By the fifteenth day, the last hopes had died. And by the sixteenth day, their highly decorated shrouds were burned at Annabeth and Percy's favorite place: Camp Half-Blood. Chiron notified and consoled the parents of the fallen, depressed campers were sent home, and the remaining Seven were grieving strenuously. Leo hadn't cracked a joke in days, Frank avoided all human contact, Hazel and Piper did anything around camp to take their mind off the reality of the fact that they would never see their favorite Greeks again, and Jason had no idea what to do with himself now that their leader was gone. Everyone had given up. Everyone didn't know what to do. And everyone finally realized how much Annabeth and Percy had contributed, not just to Camp Half-Blood, but to the Greek world as a whole. But the Greek community weren't the only ones who didn't imagine Percy and Annabeth ever coming back.

_Day Twenty: Tartarus_

Annabeth was trying to sleep in Percy's now frail arms when a broken whisper escaped from her crackled lips. Percy was surprised, though. Because not ten minutes ago a somewhat discouraging discussion went on between the two that when a little like this:

"_Annabeth_."

Percy and Annabeth were hobbling against each other, hands gripped tightly, like they had been for the past twenty days. They were in bad shape. _Really _bad shape. They had come across hundreds of monsters in the dark, having to fight them off in various conditions, without a stitch of light and only the weapons they had fallen with. They had walked hundreds of miles, sometimes in such bad shape they would crawl before giving up. They had gone days without food or water or both. They had lived each day like their last, treated each other like they were going to die any minute. And had attempted to push through and look on the bright side, even though they were in the darkest of places.

But this "_Annabeth_" had sounded different. This "_Annabeth_" wasn't _just _an "_Annabeth_." It had a secret underlying only Annabeth would understand. And so, once she had heard the fatal word escape his lips, she immediately burst into tears, fell to the floor, and dragged Percy down with her.

She had known, for a while, that Percy was dying. Well, technically, they were _both _dying. But Percy was dying fast, he was internally bleeding. It was probably a week before that he had gotten stabbed by one of the hundreds of monsters they had faced. And after he had thrown up blood, he was out for days. She had told him, once he had woken up, that once he couldn't go on anymore, he could say the word. Say the word, and they had a mutual agreement. They would stop, and wait for the other to die.

So once Annabeth had heard the word, she pulled him down to the ground and kissed him as fiercely as she possibly could, and laid against his chest.

They waited there in silence for what seemed like forever. Annabeth _still _wasn't ready to imagine going on without him. She refused. She knew, the whole time, she promised, that if this had happened, she wouldn't think twice before killing herself too. But she also knew that if Percy found out, what she was planning, he would try to talk her out of it.

A mangled sob escaped from Annabeth's lips, one she had been holding in ever since she knew he would die, and Percy stroked her hair peacefully. _How ironic, _she thought. _He's comforting me even though he's the one dying. _Percy kissed her, ever so gently, attempting to calm her down.

Eventually, Annabeth asked the question she had been turning over and over in her head for days, wondering when and how it would come up in conversation.

"Are you scared?"

Percy inhaled slowly, trying to hide how unsteady his breath really was.

"No."

Annabeth, through her stubborn tears, rolled her eyes. Percy Jackson, even when he was _dying_, was to much of a man to admit that he _was _scared.

"Come on, Perce. Its okay. It is me you're talking too."

But even with his tattered voice and weak form, Annabeth could guess at his sincerity when he explained,

"I think, the most legitimate reason why people are so scared to die, is that most of them don't know where they're going. Its the mystery, the adventure, that scares them the most. But _me._ I _know_ where I'm going. I've _been _there before. Dying? I'm not scared of dying. But death? Death, I'm afraid of. Because death is the one adventure I don't want to go on without _you _right beside me, even though I know I have to make the journey alone."

Annabeth was full-out _bawling _by this point, and she wasn't the type to cry. Through her tears and hiccups, she said,

"I'm not going on without you."

And she buried her face in his chest, fearing what he was about to say.

"_No. _Annabeth. _No. _I'm not going to be the reason you die. If you kill yourself, it will be all my fault."

But Annabeth just buried her face even deeper into his tattered shirt, and her muffled cries escaped along with,

"It doesn't _matter, _if its 'your fault.'"

She raised her head up and said,

"Tell me the truth, Percy. If the roles were reversed, what would _you _do?"

Percy thought about it for a while, then kissed her. And truthfully, it was the most romantic thing he had ever done.

They sat there for a while, silently regretting everything they never did, watching their adventurous lives flash before their eyes. It was quiet, dead quiet. And Tartarus seemed, if possible, to be even _darker _than it already was.

Suddenly, about ten minutes later, a strangled cry escaped Annabeth's lips.

"Percy? Percy! What is that?!"

Percy looked up quickly, expecting another monster, but instead, found,

"Light."

Annabeth stood, and managed to get Percy up too. They ran. They ran as fast and as urgent as their frail legs and weak bodies could possibly go. Each step, the light got larger. Each step, their hope got bigger. Each step, the possibility of saving each other seemed even more attainable than the last.

Finally, they made it to the hole in the dirt wall, and looked out at the sea. At first, the light blinded them, and all they could see was white. But finally, Percy gripped Annabeth's hand tightly, and they both jumped into the sea.

* * *

The water would have hit Annabeth hard enough to bruise her for weeks, if Percy hadn't used his 'magical water powers' to cushion her fall. As they came to, Percy kissed Annabeth full on. And it probably would have lasted for hours if one of Percy's _sea creature friends _hadn't've interrupted a somewhat personal moment.

The dolphin cleared his, _or her?, _throat, and said,

"Perseus Jackson."

Percy jumped and untangled himself from Annabeth.

"King Poseidon has sent me to deliver you to Camp Half-Blood."

"Ok, um, hold on just for like, one second."

Percy finished kissing Annabeth, and they both grabbed hold of the sea animal.

After what seemed like thirty seconds of uninterrupted, peaceful, and suspicious silence, the dolphin announced their arrival at the shore of the beach.

"This is as shallow as I can go. Thank you for the pleasure of letting me serve you, sir."

Annabeth's dark circled eyes widened, obviously impressed. Percy looked shocked too, but he did his best to try and hide it. He cleared his throat and saluted the dolphin,

"Thank _you."_

As soon as they got to the shore, they collapsed in the most exhaustive way possible. By this time, Annabeth's nails had bore marks in Percy's arm and hand. But Percy couldn't even feel it over the tremendous pain he felt almost everywhere else.

Someone obviously noticed them sprawled out on the beach, and they heard the strangled yells of the remaining campers running over towards them.

"Is that-? No..."

"It can't _possibly be.."_

_"_I THINK ITS PERCY AND ANNABETH."

Suddenly, it seemed like the whole camp was hovering over them. And once Chiron came over.. he almost fainted.

"Someone please contacted Olympus, _now. _Everyone else, _get them to the infirmary. As soon as possible."__  
_

Campers helped to pick them up and carry them over, but once their hands were forced to separate, a still conscious Annabeth screamed.

"PERCY."

The campers soon caught on and put them closer together so she could still hold his hand. By this time, Percy had passed out and Annabeth's eyes were drooping.

* * *

_Four Days Later_

"ANNABETH?!"

Percy jumped out of his hospital bed and realized that he was just having a dream. _Or a nightmare. _But it slowly became apparent that it wasn't _just _a nightmare_.. _it was reality up until a few days ago.

Annabeth raised herself slowly out of her bed and rubbed her eyes.

"What's wrong, Percy?"

Percy just crawled out of his hospital bed and sat on Annabeth's tiredly.

"Sorry for waking you up."

Annabeth just yawned and shook her head.

"S'okay, Perce."

She ruffled his hair.

And, spontaneously, Percy kissed her. Now, I know what half of you are probably thinking. _Gosh, they sure do kiss a lot._ Just think about it. They were in the middle of a war, were separated for eight months, then got trapped in literal hell for almost three weeks. Just be thankful they aren't planning on appearing on the next episode of Teen Mom anytime soon.

"I'm sorry for waking you up again.. I, um. I had a nightmare."

Percy mumbled, obviously not very proud of that fact.

Annabeth just kissed his cheek.

"I had one too. Its not like you can help it."

Percy lied down next to Annabeth and leaned against her shoulder. He sighed peacefully and wrapped his arm around her.

"This is bliss."

"Tell me about it."

But, all to soon, the moment ended when Chiron opened the door.

"Oh, good. You're awake. We were worried you both would slip into a coma if we weren't careful..."

Percy tightened his grip on Annabeth's hand and stood up exhaustively.

"Is there anything you want us or need us to do?"

Chiron chuckled.

"Whoa, Perseus. You don't have to be the hero _all __the time._ But actually, the camp was having a celebration and wanted you to join them."

"Oh really? What are they celebrating?"

"You. Your arrival."

Chiron turned to leave, but as a last thought, added,

"And be careful entering your cabins.. they're stocked mile high with stuffed animals and get well cards."


End file.
